Disclaimer: The content presented in this blog is for general information only, is not intended to constitute legal advice and cannot be relied upon by any person as legal advice. While we welcome you to contact our blog authors at hrlawupdate@verrilldana.com, the submission of a comment or question does not create an attorney-client relationship between the Firm and you.

Entries in Equal Pay
(5)

Earlier this week, bill HB5591, which has been touted as legislation that will help to close the gender pay gap between Connecticut employees, cleared the House of Representatives with a vote of 139-9. The bill, unlike the Massachusetts law that goes into effect next year, does not include a provision that would prevent employers from asking applicants about their salary history before making a job offer.

Many other states across the country, however, have bills similar to that passed by Massachusetts pending, including in Maine, which would restrict employers’ abilities to request information concerning previous rates of pay. Prior to this legislation moving forward, Lee Hansen in the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research published a comparison of Massachusetts and Connecticut’s labor laws relative to gender wage discrimination in a Research Report on December 16, 2016.

The 2016 elections – local and national – have given rise to a number of complicated developments in labor and employment law. To help employers understand these changes and how to address them, Verrill Dana will host a full-day Annual Employment Law Update on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at The Westin Portland Harborview Hotel.

“While we were all focused on the minimum salary rule, courts and agencies across the country implemented changes that will affect how human resources professionals will do their job in 2017 and beyond,” said Doug Currier, Chair of the Labor & Employment Group. “This year’s conference will highlight how to navigate the ever-evolving employment landscape and best practices for addressing increasingly prevalent workplace scenarios.”

More on all six of these initiatives can be found here. Within the “Preserving Access to the Legal System,” initiative, the EEOC notes it will focus on: “1) overly broad waivers, releases, and mandatory arbitration provisions (e.g., waivers or releases that limit substantive rights, deter or prohibit filing charges with EEOC, or deter or prohibit providing information to assist in the investigation or prosecution of discrimination claims);

On August 1, 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law sweeping changes to the state’s prohibition on discrimination in pay on the basis of an employee’s gender. The law is one of the most aggressive equal pay laws passed in the United States and contains unique provisions to combat pay disparities.

The law, entitled “An Act to establish equal pay,” goes farther than the prohibition on pay discrimination currently found in Massachusetts General Law ch. 149, § 105A by, among other things, making certain employer practices that may have the unintended effect of perpetuating pay disparities unlawful. For example, the law makes it unlawful for an employer to: